Expecto patwhatta?
by Munsje
Summary: Lily Minerva Potter is the daughter of Harry James and Ginevra Potter, feeling like she'll never be able to live up to her parents and the world's expectations, she's about to face an adventure of her own RR :
1. of an old hat's mistake

**EXPECTO PATWHATTA?**

**BY MUNSJE**

_Summary_: So being "the boy who lived" was annoying, how about being his firstborn?

_Disclaimer_: Don't own, except for Lily Minerva Potter, Sirius James Potter and any other characters you do not recognize from the books and of course the plot outline.

**Prologue – Of an old hat's mistake**

'Potter, Lily Minerva.' There was more than a little pride in McGonnagal's voice as she pronounced the name. The Great Hall, that had been buzzing with excitement just a few moments ago, suddenly fell silent as a young girl with flaming red hair and a blush to match it walked up to the three-legged stool.

It wasn't that Lily was truly nervous. She'd be in Gryffindor, just like everyone else from the Weasley and the Potter family. Or at least, she hoped she would be. It was more that all the students of Hogwarts had now focused on her and if anything, she hated to be in the center of attention. Well, not that exactly, but she hated to be in the center of attention just because she happened to be _the daughter of_.

McGonnagal placed the Sorting Hat on her head, which was far too big and fell right down to her chin. She must look ridiculous.

_Ah, I was wondering when I would meet you_, the Sorting Hat said cheerfully. _Let me see. I know just where to place you. It will be... '_SLYTHERIN!'

A silence stretched after this word that to Lily seemed to last forever. No one in the Hall dared to breathe, or move. The Slytherin's exchanged looks, wondering if they should start cheering, but no one had the guts to do so.

Even McGonnagal didn't move towards Lily to pick up the hat, probably hoping that there had been some kind of mistake.

A Potter could not possibly be in Slytherin. The very idea was ridiculous.

Lily was also silently begging for a second chance. How could the Sorting Hat have made up his mind so quickly? She had been sitting there for just a second after all. There was no way that he could be positive. If only the earth would open up and swallow her whole! She thought of her mother and her father, of what they would have to say. Of her uncles – Merlin! - Fred and George would never let this go!

_And grandmother_! She felt like she was going to be sick. Her grandmother would have her head. She could just imagine the ranting, the screaming...

"Oh, I am sorry," the Sorting Hat said suddenly, 'Did I say Slytherin? I meant Gryffindor.' And in her ear he softly whispered: _I have met Molly... Even I am not that cruel_.

There was a general sigh of relief (even from the Slytherin table) as the Sorting Hat corrected himself. Everything was restored to its normal order. Potter's were in Gryffindor, Malfoy's were in Slytherin. The students quickly wrote it off as a bad joke on the Sorting Hat's part and it was never mentioned again. Though the teachers knew better, they also were as smart not to ever tell Lily's parents about it and especially (and rightfully so) her grandmother.

But though it was kept silent and soon forgotten, it kept Lily up that night and would keep her up for many nights in the future to come.

It was the first time that she ever truly realized, that she might not live up to the person that the world had expected her to be.

**_TBC_**


	2. Chapter 1 Cauldron meltdown

**EXPECTO PATWHATTA?**

**BY MUNSJE**

**Chapter one – cauldron meltdown**

Lily groaned as her brother started on another overly excited rant about going to Hogwarts. Her father laughed and winked at her, she just rolled her eyes at him. 'Sirius, I swear, if you do not shut up right now I am going to jinx you until you can't stand straight!'

That shut him up. She smirked and crossed her arms, leaning back in the car seat. 'Come on now, Lily,' her father said, 'Sirius is just happy to finally see the place you have been going on and on about these past few years.'

'Yeah,' Sirius said, sticking out his tongue. 'D'you reckon I'll be in Gryffindor too?'

'Of course! All Potter's and Weasley's have been in that house for generations!' Her grandmother piped up, 'I'm sure you will be too.'

Lily felt her stomach churn as she remembered her own sorting ceremony and for once she did not threaten her brother as he began to sing the Hogwarts school song. Of course, on his own invented tune, and unfortunately for those inside the car (meaning her mother, father, her grandmother, grandfather, uncle Ron and aunt Hermione) he was very much tone-deaf.

'_Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,_

_Teach us something please,_

_Whether we be old and bald_

_Or young with scabby knees_

_Our heads could do with filling,_

_With some interesting stuff,_

_for now they're bare and full of air,_

_Dead flies and bits of fluff,_

_So teach us things worth knowing,_

_Bring back what we've forgot,_

_Just do your best, we'll do the rest_

_And learn until our brains all rooooooooooooo_-'x1

'That'll do, Sirius,' her mother interrupted him.

Sirius looked disappointed and pouted, Aunt Hermione immediately felt sorry for him. 'You sang wonderfully, Sirius,' she said. 'I, for one, am glad you are so excited to go to school.' Aunt Hermione was a teacher there, teaching Muggle Studies, which was the only reason why Lily had picked the subject. She was hoping for some special treatment and automatic high grades considering Hermione was something of a surrogate-mother, living right next door to them and visiting them daily.

Her father, having guessed at her motives, had simply laughed at her. 'You don't know Hermione well enough if you think she'll let you pass just because she likes you. If anything, she'll challenge you even more than the others because she expects more from you.'

_Expects_. Everyone was always expecting something. Well, she could always drop the class if it really was to boring, which – according to uncle Ron – it really was.

'What wand d'you reckon I'll get?' Sirius asked, his jet-black hair jumping up and down as he wriggled in his seat.

'As long as it's from Ollivander's, any wand will do just fine,' Molly said.

At length they finally reached their destination, they parked the car and all stepped out. Lily stretched her arms, she hated cars. But not as much as her mother disliked Floo Powder, so it was basically the only way to go.

An American tourist, carying a large backpack and wearing shorts of all things – as if the weather in London was ever any good – nudged his companion, who looked up from his large map.

'Amazing how much fits in those small European cars.'

He pointed at the Potter's and than at the Mini Cooper that was behind them. They were even more dumbfounded as a few seconds later, the entire family seemed to have disappeared into nothing. Little did they know, that they had just stepped into _The Leaky Cauldron_, which Muggles were unable to see.

The Leaky Cauldron was led by a man not much older than Lily's father, named Stan Shunpike. It had been closed for several years during and after the war, after the previous owner had been killed by a death eater. After Stan was released from Azkaban, where he had been held unfairly after being accused of being one of Voldemort's followers himself, he decided he wanted to live a 'quieter' life. How exactly one could call managing the Leaky Cauldron a quiet life, Lily didn't know, but he seemed to be perfectly happy with his current job.

'Hiya Harry,' Stan greeted her father as he walked in. 'And lovely to see you, Ginny, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley. Ron, how's it going bloke? Brought the kids along with you, I see. Mr. Weasley! It's been a long time! I was just saying too...'

'Sorry, Stan,' Mr. Weasley said swiftly, before Stan could continue, 'But we've got a lot of shopping to do. My grandson is starting his first year at Hogwarts, you see. You know how it goes, finding a wand, getting robes...' They all swiftly made their way to the courtyard, as Stan chatted happily about his first years at Hogwarts at no one in particular. Someone at the bar joined in soon enough, though.

The group broke up as soon as the portal to Diagon Alley opened. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to Ollivander's with Sirius, Mr. Weasley and Hermione were setting off for Flourish & Blotts, Ron and Harry said they'd take Lily to wherever else she needed to go, which meant that as soon as Hermione, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley were out of sight, they'd give her some pocket money and leave her to her business.

'After all, there's no need for them to be so paranoid, when I was your age we'd be visiting the shops by ourselves. But ever since the war everyone tends to think that kids can't look after themselves,' Harry explained, finding this a very reasonable excuse himself and Lily was not going to question her new-found freedom.

A short while after she ran into Raewyn, her closest friend at Hogwarts. Raewyn was short for her age, but had a personality that covered up for it. Always and ever cheerful, completely disinterested in books and learning and absolutely fascinated about Quidditch. Even to the point where it was obsessed. She'd been in the Gryffindor team since her second year and was considered one of the most promising players on the team. She had short, dirty-blond hair (there had been many arguments where one would say her hair was brown and the other that her hair was blond), reaching to just above her shoulders and bright blue eyes.

After Lily greeted her parents and filled them in about what a wonderful summer she'd had, Raewyn was also released of their presence and they decided to go to the _Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes_.

'I was thinking about buying a love potion,' Raewyn said, grinning.

'A love potion? What do you need that for?'

'You never know,' Raewyn shrugged, still grinning widely.

Fred greeted them enthusiastically as they walked in. 'You've grown since I've last seen you, Lil,' he said.

'That was two weeks ago,' she said sourly, 'it's impossible for me to have grown noticeably taller in that time.'

'Right,' he said. 'It's probably because I still think of you as an eleven-year-old. How time flies.'

George heartily agreed with him, as he suddenly popped up beside him, proclaiming that he still remembered the day that he had found out that his little sister was pregnant. According to his own words, he still hadn't recovered from the shock.

'And how are you, Raewyn?' George asked.

Raewyn blushed a little and Lily barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. Though her friend denied it, she had always had a thing for George, despite him being much too old for her. 'Fine,' she giggled.

'She wanted to buy a love potion,' Lily said.

'Sorry, you've got to be at least sixteen,' Fred shook his head, 'and even if you _were_ sixteen I wouldn't sell you any. Ginny would have my head. Speaking of the Dementor...'

Ginny walked in, a screaming and jumping Sirius following behind. He was waving his wand through the air, every now and then sending sparks in different directions. Mrs. Weasley tried to make him stop, but was fighting a lost battle.

'Lily,' Ginny said surprised, 'what are you doing here? I thought your father was going to take you to buy a new cauldron.'

'A new cauldron? What does she need a new one for?' Fred piped up.

'She melted hers last term,' Raewyn giggled.

'Melted? How did you melt your cauldron?'

'Oh. Well... uhm...' Lily turned a bright shade of scarlet.

'It is a mystery to us all,' Ginny said, with an exasperated sigh. 'She passed her Potions exams so it couldn't have been before or during, but somewhere between that exam and the Hogwarts Express she managed to melt it.'

Fred raised his eyebrows, intrigued.

'But where is your father?'

'Oh. He and uncle Ron just went for a drink after they dropped us off here, they'd pick us up in a minute.'

Ginny was about to open her mouth to say something, but instead a loud _BANG_ was heard, the ground of the shop shuddered for a moment. They all turned around to where the sound had come from and found a bewildered Sirius covered in a strange purple goo.

'Give me that wand,' Mrs. Weasley snapped, snatching it out of his fingers. 'And don't you dare use it again until you are in Hogwarts!'

Sirius didn't find it in himself to protest.

* * *

As Mrs. Weasley had predicted, Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor. Professor McGonnagal had looked slightly anxious as she had called out his name, probably fearing a situation like Lily's would occur, but the Hat had barely touched her brother's head when he shouted out, loud and clear: 'GRYFFINDOR!'

Lily shouted and cheered, like everyone else, but couldn't help but feel a stab of jealousy. How come the Sorting Hat didn't even have to think twice about him, when she had almost met her doom? OK, that was exaggerating a bit, but still.

Raewyn hooted loudly and Lily laughed, forgetting her own stupid worries.

'Good job, Sirius,' Lily said, as her brother passed her, Sirius grinned proudly.

McGonnagal held a short speech, as was customary at the start of a school year, calling of the usual list of forbidden items (as issued by Argus Filch) and setting the date for the Quidditch try-outs.

'I hope I'll make the team this year,' Raewyn said nervously.

'Come off it,' Lily said, 'you make the team every year, you're the star player.'

'Yeah, but what if someone has come along who's better than me?'

Lily seriously doubted it and said as much, but this didn't stop Raewyn from worrying. She didn't stop until the food appeared and this lead to a distraction, because if there was one thing in the world that was equal to Quidditch, in Raewyn's book, than it was food.

Well, maybe not equal, but held a well-deserved second place in her list of favorite things.

'Heard Creevey's been made Captain this year,' Lily said, while helping herself to a large portion of mashed potatoes and gravy.

'Creevey, yeah, I thought he might be.'

'I'm sure you'll make it next year,' Lily said soothingly, knowing that Raewyn had been heavily disappointed by not being made captain, but she was fairly young after all. There were only a few players who were appointed in their fourth year and one among them was Wood, Raewyn's absolute idol. Wood had told her, when she'd been staying at Lily's house during the summer, that she was every bit as good (if not better) as he had been at her age and nearly as good as 'Potter' as he always called him, she'd nearly fainted.

To Lily, he'd simply said; 'just keep on practicing.'

She'd seriously considered hexing him, but knew the punishment that would follow would overbear her few seconds of glory so she kept herself in check.

'It's alright,' Raewyn said, 'even if I don't make captain. Not all captains make professional players do they?'

'True enough,' Lily nodded.

An hour later they headed up to the common rooms, tailed by Sirius, Lily decided that she needed to have a serious word with him. Not that she had anything against her little brother, but the last thing she wanted was for him to tag along wherever she went. He needed to make his own set of friends here, just like she had. But tonight she was far too tired to discuss this with him.

As soon as she hit the pillow, she was sound asleep and morning came far too early in her opinion. If it hadn't been for Raewyn shouting loudly in her ear, using the _Sonorus_-charm (which caused her to be deaf for most of the morning), she would have slept until well past noon.

'Come on!' Raewyn said excitedly, 'we'll be getting our timetables this morning.'

'Since when are you so interested in our timetables.' Lily retorted.

'It's a new year, a new day, a fresh start,' Raewyn said cheerfully, opening the curtains and blinding Lily with the sunlight. 'I have promised myself to at least pretend I am interested this year, I tell you, my mother was not pleased with my grades from last year.'

'Why not? I thought you passed everything!'

'Yeah, barely. And I flunked History of Magic.'

'Everyone flunked history of magic.'

'You didn't.'

'Of course I didn't,' Lily said, as if offended by the mere suggestion alone. 'I studied a lot for that exam, may I remind you.'

'You did not study a lot,' Raewyn laughed, 'you were far too busy trying to impress professor Tackabury.'

'I was _not_ trying to impress professor Tackabury!'x2

'Than how did you melt your cauldron again?'

Lily just '_hmph_'d in response.

It turned out that the two of them would have a busy year. With their extra subjects - in Lily's case, there were three: Muggle studies, care of magical creatures (despite her father's warnings and uncle Ron's uncontrollable shivers at the mention of this class) and ancient runes - added to their already long list of classes, they barely had a moment to relax.

'Just wait till you are in your fifth year,' Merlin said, who was in the Gryffindor Quidditch team and had just started on his sixth year. 'You'll be looking back on your fourth with envy.'

This worried Raewyn a little, finding the current workload already hard to bear, but Lily soberly reminded her that Merlin had only passed three O.W.L.'s and had in fact been offered to retake the examinations upcoming June. Merlin may be nice, but he wasn't the brightest among the bunch.

They started off for their first period, which was Defence Against the Dark Arts, taught by none other than Hermione, or as she was supposed to call her while she was at school _professor_ Granger.

Because there was no one willing to take the post as DADA-teacher, classes were divided between 'professor Granger' and professor Flitwick, who also taught Charms. Rumor had it, that no one officially wanted to teach Defence because it was cursed. All those who had dared to teach it had never been able to keep the job for longer than a year and usually bad things happened to them at the end of this year.

Whether this was true or not was hard to say, ever since the short closure of the school during the war, there hadn't been anyone to fill the post. Of course they'd heard the stories of Gilderoy Lockheart, who lost his memory (and had now published a fantastic novel about finding it again), professor Quirell, who'd been off worst of all because he'd been killed and one or two mentioned this 'Umbridge' who'd apparently been attacked by the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest.

Lily had asked Hermione about it once, who had shrugged and said that she'd been teaching Defence for some years now and her memory was still intact and last time she checked, she was still breathing.

'But you're not officially the teacher, aren't you,' Lily had said stubbornly, who preferred the much more exciting version of the job being cursed.

'Well, yes, of course, but...' Hermione had seemed a bit at loss but then told her that it was just one of Hogwarts myths and legends that, for better or for good, was not true. (her dad had mumbled: 'at least not anymore'.) 'It is unfortunate that still people belief in this fib, because both Flitwick and I don't have the time to give the subject the attention it needs.'

In any case, the past three years Lily had been taught by professor Flitwick, because he had been assigned to the younger students. She was thrilled to find out that she was now going to have two classes with Hermione, which meant she should easily pass this year.

Her hope was squashed as soon as she stepped foot in the classroom. Hermione didn't even acknowledge her presence.

'Everybody please take their books and turn to page 12. We'll just go ahead and skip the introduction during class, but,' she added warningly, 'I expect you all to have read it in our next class! I will be asking questions about it and points _will_ be taken off if you haven't done your homework properly. Now. Today we are going to discuss defensive charms, which is – after all – what this class is all about. For most charms and enchantments there is always a counter spell, or a means of protection. Does anyone know of any charm, curse or anything else that is _impossible_ to be deflected?'

Silence.

'Miss Potter?' Hermione – or professor Granger – asked, her eyebrows raised. 'Any thoughts?' Lily had thoughts aplenty, but truth be told none concerned whatever professor Granger had just been asking.

'Uhm... no, professor.'

'Oh.' There was obvious disappointment in her tone. 'Of course, I am speaking of the Unforgivable Curses. There are three, does anyone know the name of these curses?'

Again, silence.

Hesitantly, Brogan lifted his hand.

'Yes, Mr. Peddycord.'

'The Imperius curse, professor.'

'Very well,' Hermione nodded. 'But, although it is very difficult, it is possible to reverse this spell. Another.'

'Crucio?' Someone from Ravenclaw called from the back of the classroom.

'Indeed. But, also reversible. We have one left.'

'Avada Kedavra,' Brogan spoke up for the second time.

'Exactly. Avada Kedavra is the worst curse of all. Unstoppable. Once hit by it, your faith is set. Fortunately, these _unforgivable_ curses are also very forbidden by the Ministry of Magic and you all live in a time that it is not likely that you will ever encounter this curse. For this, you may be very thankful...'

Professor Granger began a long lecture about several protective spells, which they would be discussing this term and of course they got some extra homework.

Lily scowled, she was beginning to have second thoughts about it being fun to have Hermione as a teacher.

As the day continued, Raewyn and Lily began to realize that the teachers had thus far been very easy on them. By the end of the day they had more homework than they'd possibly had in the past three years all put together. They cursed teachers and school loudly as they entered the common room.

'Lily!'

Lily's mood worsened as she saw Sirius running towards her. 'Yes?' she said, trying to sound friendly, after all, he could not be blamed for her lousy mood.

'Did you know,' he said, slightly out of breath, 'that Dad has an award for special services to the school?'

'Yeah,' she said, shrugging. 'Of course I do.'

'What for?'

'Dunno. Never asked.'

'Is his dad really Harry Potter?' A first year asked, who'd been standing besides Sirius. He gave her brother a scrutinizing look and she smiled. Sirius was a skinny boy, who (according to the stories) looked a lot like her father had done at his age. But she could see why a first year would find it hard to believe that this scruffy boy was the son of the most famous wizard in the world.

'As true as can be,' she said solemnly.

'WOW! Cool!' the boy said excitedly. 'What's your dad like, Sirius?'

Lily did feel kind of sorry for her brother, as he was suddenly catapulted with a thousand and million questions about her dad, her mother and the rest of her family. She'd been through that for the past few years herself. Not that anyone dared ask anything now, the last one who had tried to ask her if her dad's scar was really shaped like a lightning bolt had ended up in the hospital wing for three weeks. (though Lily denied any involvement in his sudden mysterious illness, the students knew better than to risk it)

She didn't have the chance to help Sirius, though, because Brogan sat down in the seat beside her and she turned her attention on him. 'Where have you been?' she asked, 'haven't seen you at dinner.'

'No, I got into an argument with Dwight.'

She pulled a face at the mention of him. As was and is common knowledge, Slytherin's and Gryffindor's don't get along. Even those who'd met Slytherins previous to the sorting, automatically turned their back on them when they found out what house they were in. It wasn't that all Slytherins were bad, it was just the way things went at Hogwarts. Dwight, however, was one of those Slytherins that gave pride to its reputation (depending on your point of view). He was cocky, annoying, and had a constant Holier-Than-Thou attitude. He claimed to be from of one of the oldest wizarding families that still existed in England and would stop at no opportunity to make his heritage known.

Lily seriously disliked Dwight, like all else in Gryffindor, but she knew better than Brogan, she avoided him if possible and made sure she took her revenge when he wasn't looking and there could be no proof that she did it.

'What was it about this time?' Raewyn said with a sigh.

'The usual,' Brogan said grimly, 'so I hexed him. Unfortunately, dear professor Granger saw and not only took of twenty housepoints for using magic in the corridors, but also gave me three weeks worth of detention.'

'Wow, that's a bit harsh, even coming from Granger,' Raewyn said surprised, 'exactly what hex did you use?'

'Well, he may have been knocked out a little. But it was only because my spell went awry.'

Lily laughed and shook her head. 'Don't worry,' she said with a wink, 'These three weeks will be over before you know it and after that we will make sure that Dwight pays for putting you through it.'

Lily went to bed that night, feeling very tired and drowsy after having spend hours trying to figure out the assignment professor Granger had given them, but also very contented. She was back at Hogwarts.

'Let's make this year a good one,' Raewyn said, before dozing off into sleep.

'Yeah. Let's make this year the best one yet,' Lily said softly, knowing that no one was left awake to hear her.

* * *

_A/N_:

x1 The School Song can be found in _The Philosopher's Stone _(American title Sorcerer's Stone) in the chapter 'The Sorting Hat' (page 95 in the Bloomsbury paperback edition, to be precise ;))  
x2 Professor Slughorn is already quite old when he rejoins the staff in _The Halfblood Prince_, considering this takes place many years after, it is safe to presume that he is returned to retirement, therefore the introduction of professor Tackabury.

Feel free to leave a review and tell me what you think :) I'm just kind of figuring this story out, as is usual. I have an idea of where it's heading and on the other hand, I haven't got any idea at all. So I'm just going to wait and see how it develops.

_**TBC**_


	3. Chapter 2 Chills, they're multiplying

__

**EXPECTO PATWHATTA**

**BY MUNSJE**

**Chapter two – Chills, they're multiplying**

The Quidditch try-outs were being held and the outcome was none too surprising, though a few spots were open (they needed one seeker and one chaser), the team was much the same as it had been the past few years.

According to many, last years team (that had gotten the Quidditch cup, ranking far above all the other houses, which all the players boasted about whenever they got and did not get the opportunity) was the best since Wood's reign.

That was some compliment.

Lily managed to reclaim her spot as beater, though she had a hard time doing it. Raewyn's fears that someone better might have popped up turned out not to be so extremely wrong as a very talented third year tried out for Beater. Thankfully he misdirected one Bludger, sending it at Creevey's head, who (once he woke up in the hospital wing) told Lily that she needn't worry, she was still on the team. The third year burst into tears.

Of course, Raewyn had her spot already written down as chaser before she even started. Creevey was not dissapointed, she flew as well as any other day.

Creevey set the first practice for upcoming Wednesday, at four o'clock, which meant that Lily had to hurry out of Ancient Runes at top speed if she wanted to make it. Eventually it was rescheduled to five o'clock as some pointed out they still had classes around this hour and that no, Creevey, they could not just skip it.

Unless _he_ was willing to take over all of their detentions. Having no time for that himself (he had N.E.W.T.'s to study for this year, alongside of being captain which held more responsibility than one would originally think) he conceded.

New additions to the team were a second year as seeker, called Anser Harry Longbottom. Lily knew Anser vaguely, she knew he was the son of Luna and Neville Longbottom, two friends of her parents that they'd known since Hogwarts.x1 She'd never been quite sure about the two of them. Luna was absolutely insane, though she wasn't allowed to say this because according to both her mother and her father Luna might be a little different, but she was braver than most and had stood by their side through many perilous situations. Of course they both refused to explain what 'perilous situations' this might have been. For alls he knew, dad had been referring to her mum's cooking. Neville was nice, but equally weird in his own way. And she still remembered the one time that he had tried magic to clean up the mess he'd made when he'd dropped Ginny's ever-famous (only famous for being so absolutely vile) chicken soup. He nearly burned the house down.

Now one might expect, if one had never met Anser, that he'd be much like his parents. Strange, unable to perform any bit of magic without it going absolutely haywire and at times a bit embarrassing, but Lily knew better than to think that. According to his great-grandmother Anser took after his grandparents, who were still lying in St. Mungo's after having been attacked by Death-Eaters and going insane after that.

Of course, there were some things that belied his heritage, like his fondness for the Quibbler. He was absolutely convinced that everything published in the Quibbler was true and he considered the Daily Prophet to be what many others thought of the Quibbler: a story-telling magazine that only wanted to entertain the public.

He had about (or so Lily had heard) a dozen plants in his room, all as strange as the next, which he cared for like it were his own children.

And she had also heard the rumors about his performance in Transfiguration, where – after being asked to turn his toad into a teacup – he managed to turn the teacher a lovely shade of green and give her enough warts to ensure a couple of weeks at St. Mungo's.

'Hey, Lil,' Anser said cheerfully, 'how's your summer been?'

'Oh, great. What've you been up to?'

'Mine was brilliant,' Anser said, his eyes shining madly, 'I went to Romania, as it turns out there's a man there that is the son of a dragon and a pygmy puff!'

'A dragon and a pygmy puff,' Lily repeated slowly.

'Yeah,' Anser said, 'it's really weird. I met his parents and everything.'

'But isn't it illegal to keep a dragon in Romania?'

'Well, yeah... but I mean, if it's your dad surely there must be an exception to the rule.'

'Right.' Lily was pretty sure that something must have gotten lost in translation as Anser spoke to the wizard who was born from a pygmy puff, but she decided to let this one slide. 'Who would've thought such a thing was possible,' she said conversationally.

'I certainly wouldn't,' Merlin said breathlessly next to her. 'That's so cool! Did you take any pictures?'

Once again, Lily was not surprised that Merlin had only managed to scrape three O.W.L.'s together.

The next morning they set off for transfiguration, which had finally started up again after their professor had been released from the hospital. It turned out she was still recovering. There was still a rather large wart on the middle of her nose and Lily found it hard to stare at anything else, so that in her imagination it grew larger by the second.

'Goodmorning everyone,' she said in her honey-sweet voice. 'I am so happy to be back among my students and my wonderful colleagues. Anything important happen while I was gone? No? No strange misfortunes, teachers turning out to be werewolves, a chamber of secrets being opened? No? Oh well. Always knew Hogwarts wouldn't be as interesting after Harry left. And Miss Potter, are you about ready for that interview?'

Lily heaved a heavy sigh, Transfiguration was her favorite and best subject, but the teacher would get on her nerves.

'Never you mind,' the professor continued, undisturbed. 'I'm sure I will get it one day. Now... as you may understand, we won't be trying any magic today. I think it's best if we read the directions properly first, before just waving our wands around and sending our teacher to the hospital! So if you would all open your books to page 213... miss Mackneal, would you do the honors?'

Raewyn began reading the instructions of page 213 aloud, while Lily thought sadly, '_even professor Skeeter has gotten boring_.'

* * *

'Fred, George!' Lily called out, waving at her uncles, who were just informing a third year old about the effect of the nougat nosebleed. It was the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year, and she was standing in the loud and noisy shop that also belonged to the _Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes_-branch.x2

'Hey, Lil,' Fred said, grinning. 'You _do_ have permission this year don't you?'

Lily stuck her tongue out at him, before passing him the permission slip. 'It took a lot of persuading,' she said with a heavy sigh, 'but I've got it.'

To say that Ginny and Harry were protective of their children was an understatement, as far as Lily was concerned. When her third year had started and she'd finally been allowed to visit Hogsmeade, her parents refused to let her go, saying it was 'too dangerous to leave the safety of Hogwarts.'

'Oh come on!' she'd protested, 'You-Know-Who-'

'_Voldemort_,' her father had corrected her.

'Yeah, him,' Lily had said, trying to stop herself from shuddering at the mention of his name, 'he's been dead for at least twenty years! What d'you possibly think he can do to me now!'

'I'm not worried about Voldemort, I am worried about those that were loyal to him and those that will still use my daughter as a way to get to me.'

And that was the end of the discussion, or so her mother and father had thought. It had been Fred who had tipped her off about a certain map that Dad still had in his possession and after looking for a couple of days she found it in one of his old schoolbooks. Without him knowing, she smuggled it into Hogwarts and managed to visit Hogsmeade a couple of times, until her father noticed the map was missing and had guessed what she'd been up to. He'd set up this entire scheme to catch her at it. She'd been grounded for the first two weeks of the summer break. But it did get her what she wanted: her parents permission. In the end they decided it was best to let her go with the teachers knowing where she was, instead of her sneaking out of the castle. At least this way the teachers would notice sooner if she turned out missing or if something else had happened.

And much to her surprise, Lily was allowed to keep the map (unbeknown to her mother, of course). 'I haven't got much use for it,' dad had said with a shrug. 'This map belongs at Hogwarts.' She hadn't had much use of it yet, but she was sure one day it would prove its worth.

'Thank Merlin,' George said, bringing her back to present time, 'I still haven't recovered from the Bat Bogey Hex she set on us when she found out we were the ones that told you about the map.'

'Honestly,' Fred said, nodding vigorously, 'you'd almost think she was a Saint during her time at Hogwarts, depriving her daughter of a good bit of fun if you ask me, acting the way she does.'

'Naturally, you haven't heard us say that,' George said swiftly. Shuddering again as he thought about her mum's infamous Bat Bogey Hex. 'Hello Raewyn, didn't see you there.' Raewyn had been standing behind one of the shelves and gave them a grin, blushed furiously and knocked over a few fake wands while she was at it.

'Hey! I think that third year just took one of your Nougat Nosebleed's without paying!' Lily called out loudly, pointing at the boy that Fred had been talking to early.

'Why that little...' Fred said and muttered an incomprehensible word under his breath. 'Come on George.' The two brothers set out of the shop, after giving one of the employees instructions to manage it while they were gone.

Raewyn and Lily exchanged a glance, before bursting into laughter. When Fred and George came back, with smug looks on their faces ('I didn't do anything, I swear!' the boy had said, near to tears), Lily was already gone. It was then that something seemed a little bit odd to George and Fred seemed to be thinking the same thing.

'You don't think that she's done anything wrong, do you?' Fred said nervously, wondering what the retributions would be for them if she'd taken anything that might cause damage from their shop.

'Nah,' George said, but his heart wasn't really in it. 'She wouldn't.'

Lily and Raewyn, in the meantime, met up with Brogan in _The Three Broomsticks_, he had refused to come with them to George's and Fred's after hearing their plan. As a moaning and whimpering thirdyear from Ravenclaw came in, with his hands glued together, he applauded himself on taking such a wise decision.

'Did you get it?' he asked nervously.

'We did,' Raewyn said grinning, slid her hand in her pocket and showed him a package for just the briefest second, before it disappeared into her pockets again, afraid that someone might see. 'I almost thought he knew what we were up too,' she said, 'when I knocked over those fake wands he gave me this funny look, y'know, as if wondering if I was up to something.'

'But luckily we had plan B,' Lily knew she should feel sorry for the Ravenclaw, but she knew her uncles hadn't done anything serious to him, only scared him a little. Besides, she was still feeling a huge adrenaline rush from the entire adventure.

'And you're sure this is going to work?'

'Brogan,' Lily said conspiratorially 'Dwight won't know what hit him.'

'Yeah OK, but the last time you said that...'

'I know what happened the last time I said that and I know this what I said afterwards the last time _you_ said that.' Lily said slightly exasperated.

'I'm telling you,' Raewyn said, 'it's going to work out perfectly. At least for us.'

The next morning, Lily set to work. After a long and heated discussion, they chose Lily to be the one to do it. She was cursing her friends under her breath as she caried the box under her arm, setting towards the Slytherin common room. 'Just _how_ am I supposed to give him these?' She'd asked, just before she had left.

'You'll find a way,' Raewyn said, smirking.

Alright then.

She stared at the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room and contemplated the next course of action. Maybe she should just try shouting some passwords at random, she was pretty sure it was something like 'evil', 'morons' or 'ugly dragons feet' or whatnot. But, this would probably attract a lot of attention and that was the last thing she needed.

How was she going to deliver Dwight's 'present' without him finding out that she was up to it? She needed a way to conceal her identity. If only she now had her father's old cloak, but he would rather tear of his left arm than give it to her. Especially if she was going to use it for something like this. Polyjuice Potion, transfiguration, invisibility charms all sprang to her head and all were not available at the moment.

She wouldn't dare to turn herself invisible, not without having practiced it first. What if she accidentally made it permanent?  
Perhaps if she would just leave the box lying here, with a note '_for Dwight_' on it. But than it would probably fall into the wrong hands. She didn't trust a Slytherin if her life depended on it and she seriously doubted that they would actually give it to Dwight, most likely they would just keep it for themselves.

_How about a memory charm_?

No, far too serious. If they ever found out about that she'd be expelled, if not send off to Azkaban. Giving Dwight his due was one thing, but to stake her future career on it was another.

Gloomily, she left for the Great hall, thinking that a good hearty breakfast might give her the answer that she needed. And as ever, Lily was very right.

As she entered, she found that most had already left for Hogsmeade. She overheard some Slytherins talking about 'waiting for Dwight'. Using a hovering charm as she sat at the Gryffindor table, she waited until Dwight finally appeared. With a flick of her wand the box landed right in front of Dwight, who blinked at it for a few seconds.

'Is this yours?' he asked the girl that sat closest to him. The girl shook her head. He then opened the box and examined it. 'Well, I don't know from who these chocolate cauldrons were, but they're mine now.'

Lily sniggered into her hand, Dwight was always so thick.

She ate her breakfast at leisure, waiting for Dwight to leave before setting off herself, she did not want him to remember she'd been present in the Hall when he'd found the chocolate cauldrons.

Well, if any plan was ever going to work, than this would've been it, she thought proudly to herself. Whistling and sometimes humming she went back up the common room, where Raewyn and Brogan were waiting for her, so they could all go to Hogsmeade together.

'Now all that's left is to wait and see,' she said cheerfully. 'Let's go, shall we?'

The three of them went to the Three Broomsticks, expecting that whatever was going to happen, would most likely occur there. The weather was horrible and they doubted that anyone would be braving it, so most of the school would gather themselves there. Plus, they knew their other objective would be there too. 'This was an absolutely brilliant idea, if I may say so myself,' Raewyn said.

'You may,' Lily said.

It didn't take long before the whole scene evolved. They had just managed to order there second Butterbeer when Dwight came burging through the doors, his cloak billowing behind him. His eyes were shining madly and there was a stupid grin on his face. He stared at the other side of the room, where professor Granger was zipping on her mead while talking to Hagrid.

Dwight didn't move for a few minutes and a little drool began to appear at the corner of his mouth. Raewyn, Brogan and Lilly all exchanged looks, they wondered how many of those chocolate cauldrons Dwight had actually eating. But they didn't have a lot of time to feel guilty, as he shouted loudly, 'PROFESSOR GRANGER!'

Hermione looked up, a bit dazed.

'Professor!' Dwight pushed his way through the crowd, accidentally knocking a few of their chairs. Not that he cared. Lily seriously doubted if he would have cared even if he wasn't suffering from the effect of a love potion.

'Yes?' Hermione asked.

'MARRY ME!' Dwight roared.

'Keep your voice down, lad,' Hagrid said, shaking his head. 'The whole world can hear yeh.'

'I don't care,' the boy proclaimed and he fell on his knees. 'I've never loved anyone more than I have loved you, professor. And I am sure that you feel the same way.'

Hermione looked absolutely flabbergasted. Brogan nearly choked on his butterbeer just seeing the expression on her face.

'I have written a sonnet for you.'

By now some of Dwight's friends had come in and tried to move towards him, but Raewyn managed to hold them up by using a leglock hex.

'_Hermioneeeeeee_,' Dwight began, stretching her name until his breath ran out,  
'_sometimes you can be really winy!_  
_Buy you're teeth are very shiny_  
_Professor Granger I love you_  
_Like my favorite shoeeee_-'

'He really is a lousy poet,' Lily said, raising her eyebrows.

'And he sings even worse.'

'Give him some credit, he's hardly had any time to write it.' Brogan said.

'You can tell,' Raewyn said dryly.

'_So I would like to ask,_  
_if to you it is not such a big task,_  
_If you would marry me_  
_Yippee_'

'Yippee?' Brogan said.

'It rhymes with me, I guess.'

'Oh Merlin, I think he's going to break into a second chorus,' Lily groaned, now seriously wondering how much cauldrons he'd eaten. But Hermione had clearly had enough of it too. 'Dwight, shut it.'

'For you anything, my dear, my love, my sunshine, my...' His lips were glued together and though he frantically tried to continue his tirade about the wonder that was called Hermione Granger, his lips simply refused to move. The explanation was given when several people saw Hagrid shove a large pink umbrella under the table. (though some just simply wondered what a large pink umbrella was doing in the Three Broomsticks in the first place) Hagrid swiftly grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. 'I'll get 'm back ter Hogwarts for yeh, Hermione,' he said, 'I'm thinkin' he might have swallowed a love potion or sumthin'. Nuthin' that professor Tackabury can't fix.'

Dwight tried to fight Hagrid all the way out of the Leaky Cauldron, obviously having forgotten that Hagrid was a half-giant and had dealed with much worse than a lovesick fourteen year old.

After the effects had worn off, Dwight went into a rampage. He wanted to know who did it, how they did it and why they did it, and more importantly, he wanted to give them a one way ticket to St. Mungo's.  
He immediately accused Brogan, but was forced to retract this after Brogan turned out to have a very solid alibi. Of course it did not take him very long to find out that Lily was the only one who didn't seem to have such a solid alibi and just happened to be a close friend of Brogan's.

'I'm sure he's planning something very nasty right now,' Brogan said, his nerves getting the best of him. 'I told you that this was too risky.'

'Come on, he hasn't got any solid proof that Lily did it, now does he?' Raewyn countered.

'Since when does Dwight ever need solid proof to take out his revenge on someone?'

Lily hated it when Brogan made a good point. Whenever he made a point it meant that something bad was about to happen and she hated it when something bad was about to happen, mostly when it involved her and meant that she was going to get the worst end of it.

But Dwight wasn't the only one smart enough to figure out that Lily might have played a part in the disaster of this afternoon. A supremely peeved Hermione had a feeling she might have too. It wouldn't be the first time.

'She takes far too much after her uncles,' she said to Hagrid and pursed her lips. 'The two of them have had a bad influence on her.'

'Now don't yeh go blamin' her immediately, Hermione,' Hagrid said, shaking his head. 'She might've had nuthin' ter do with it.'

Hermione gave him a look, 'you believe that yourself?'

Hagrid only managed to splutter in return.

In the meanwhile, several versions of Dwight's performance were being sung throughout the school and became nearly as popular as the Hogwarts school song. Several teachers found themselves driven into a corner by hooded students who sang about their shining teeth.

* * *

Oddly enough, Dwight's retribution never came. It may have been that someone talked him out of it, or that he'd gotten a warning from the teachers that if anything happened to Lily (or any other student for that matter) and that there was just a hint of his involvement, that he would face expulsion.

Brogan said that it was more likely that neither had never occurred and that Dwight was simply waiting for the right time and right opportunity to get her back in a way that she had never dreamed of. Lily thanked him for always managing to bring her into a good mood, the sarcasm was almost literally dripping off her voice.

'Did you really do it?' Sirius asked one night, glancing up from his Potions book. 'But I heard that love potions are real tough to make.'

'Who said I made it myself?' Lily said, and then hurriedly added, 'in the case that I had anything to do with it, of course.'

'You're just like grandfather Potter sometimes,' Sirius said with a sigh.

'What do _you_ know about grandfather Potter,' Lily said sharply, 'you've never even met him.'

'No, but Remus Lupin's told me stories about them and their time at Hogwarts, and I heard a thing or two from dad. You would've too if you'd just asked,' Sirius said, giving her a look.

'Yeah, whatever,' Lily mumbled.

'Did you write mum and dad yet?'

'Did I write... what kind of question is that?'

'I was just wondering,' Sirius shrugged. 'It's just that you hardly wrote these past three years, specially to mum and dad.'

'We've only been here a couple of months,' Lily defended herself. 'And it's not like anything interesting happened to tell them about.'

'I told them about what happened to Dwight, they found it very funny,' Sirius said.

'Yeah, that's what they say. But come on. They've already done and seen almost everything. How could they possibly be interested in your normal, average teenage Hogwarts-adventure. It's not like I battled some big bad dark wizard, or have been chased by a flobberworm for that matter.'

Sirius just rolled his eyes, which looked very strange on him. He must've picked up the habit from Lily. He said nothing further about it, but she could guess all too well what he was thinking. 'Mum and dad don't care about that, blablabla', yeah. Whatever. When dad was in his fourth year he'd entered the Triwizard Tournament. All she'd done so far was failing to turn her watch into a rat.

'I'll promise to write them this weekend, OK?' she said, when she couldn't stand Sirius' silence any longer. He smiled at her, obviously satisfied and than continued chatting happily for another hour about Tibus, one of his classmates, who's eyes had nearly been poked out by the Whomping Willow after he dared to come to close to the tree.

'Makes you wonder why it's even there, doesn't it?'

'Dad'll probably know a thing or more about that,' she said glumly. She turned back to her homework, drowning out her brother's voice as she did so.

* * *

_A/N_

_x1 I'm a huge fan of both Luna and Neville and I am positive that they would make a fantastic couple :D_

_x2 In Halfblood Prince Fred & George mentioned that they were thinking about buying Zonko's, but decided against it after the students were no longer allowed to go to Hogsmeade. I think it's safe to presume that they would renew their idea as soon as Voldemort was finished off._

_On another note: because in the last chapter I addressed Hermione as 'professor Granger', I will continue to do so, it was kind of stupid of me, because (naturally) Hermione is already married to Ron. I'm still contemplating on whether or not they've already had children, but that's another story. I don't think it's very strange to believe that Hermione's kept her maiden name, though. After all, she's a very strong and independent individual and might not like the idea of being called 'Hermione Weasley'. Or at least, that's my excuse ;)._

_quiero qeso: You are very right! Where is Hagrid! I actually forgot to mention him during the last chapter, I thought I had, but I may have cut him out because I didn't like what I'd written, I can't remember. In any case, don't you worry, there will be enough of Hagrid to go around throughout this story :)_

_GP: My many thanks for the wonderful compliments :)_


	4. Chapter 3 The Christmas Miracle

**EXPECTO PATWHATTA?**

**BY MUNSJE**

**Chapter 3 – The Christmas Miracle**

Days were turning colder and the first Quidditch match was coming up. Gryffindor against Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw had a brilliant team, and had ranked second place last year, so Creevey decided he didn't want to take any chances and upped the trainings from three, to four times a week. 'I want to make sure the two new members are in tune with the other players,' was his explanation.

For Lily, this meant a lot of late nights, because she hardly had any time to finish any of her homework. She'd already lost ten points to Gryffindor when she'd been unable to turn in her essay for Muggle Studies (_Why it's important for Muggles not to know about magic_), which she found very unfair.

'I mean, ten points!' she had complained to Raewyn. 'That's a little over the top!'

'She probably knows that we did it,' Brogan had said, referring to the love potion-escapade. 'But she can't do anything about it because she's got no proof. So she takes it out on you during class.'

'Yeah. But _TEN_ points!'

On the day of the match, the entire castle was buzzing with excitement and Sirius took it up to himself to be the person where you could place your bets. 'Guaranteed to win,' he shouted across the tribunes, '_A knut if you guess the right team and three times your bet if you can guess the score_! Sorry, Jordan, no bets below a galleon. Business is business.'

'What?' Jordan said outraged, 'but that'd mean I'd loose sixteen sickles and twenty-eight knuts even if I did guess the right team...'

'Got to make a living don't I?' Sirius said, raising his eyebrows. 'Besides, look at it from this way: otherwise you'd be losing a full seventeen sickles if you'd gotten the wrong score. At least now you still get a knut! Goblet's half empty or half full, I say.' He managed to extract Jordan's galleon and ran off at top speed as Jordan had been sending several jinxes at him. 'Pleasure doing business with you, mate! Got your score written down.'

Only those from Ravenclaw were foolish enough to bet that their team would win, even the Slytherins had to grudgingly agree that Gryffindor had the upper hand in this match.

'Alright,' Creevey said in the changing rooms. 'Now this is Longbottom's and Spinnet's first match, let's make sure this is a good one. The weather's a bit off today, it's supposed to rain later on, but at least this means that the sun won't bother us during the game. Let's go out there and kick some Ravenclaw a...'

'Mind your language, Creevey,' Cassandra Pewter said with a grin, 'we don't want to shock Longbottom.'

'Oh, right,' Creevey said and gave Longbottom an apologetic look, 'Uhm... well you all know what I meant. Let's just make sure we win. Again,' he added with a wink.

They walked out into the Quidditch pitch and Lily strengthened her grip on her club. Madame Hooch blew on her whistle and the balls were released, she immediately sped towards the Bludger that was flying into the direction of Pewter and swung at it with all her might.

'Gryffindor in possession of the quaffle, heading towards the goal posts. Pewter to Mackneal, Mackneal dodges a bludger, but looses the Quaffle... Ow! That must've hurt! Pigfly shot the Bludger at Ravenclaw's new asset, a chaser called Kevin Boot... Looks like he's not going to remember much of his first match.'

'Good one, Merlin!' Lily shouted over the noise, Merlin grinned.

She made a U-turn as she saw that the bludger was now heading into the direction of their Keeper, Creevey.

'Watch out, Casper!' She said, swinging her bat wildly and she would have hit him on the nose if he hadn't ducked.

'Phew,' Creevey said, 'that was a close call.'

'Yeah well, they're not supposed to aim at you if they haven't got possession of the quaffle now do they,' she said, scowling at the Ravenclaw beater, who just shrugged apologetically. As if he was really sorry.

Her arms were getting sore after the game lasted for another twenty minutes, they were well-matched against Ravenclaw and she had a hard time keeping the bludger away from her teammates.

'Ravenclaw leading seventy to fifty, and no sign of the Quaffle as of yet... oh wait, Ravenclaw leading seventy to sixty, well done Spinnet! A good addition to the team, I'd say, having been responsible for two goals. I think Mackneal has found herself a rival!

'Hold on... I think Longbottom's spotted something. Yes, he is definitely spotted something. He's diving with groundbreaking speed, if he doesn't crash into the floor this will be a spectacular save indeed!' everyone in the audience and on their broomsticks held there breaths, and a few seconds later Longbottom lay sprawled on the grass.

'Ah well... it was worth a try,' the commentator said amiably. 'But wait, he's holding something in his right arm... Longbottom's got the Snitch! Gryffindor WINS! Leading two hundred and ten to seventy! Fear Longbottom is going to need a new broom though...'

The last sentence was drowned in the roaring of the crowd, and the boos of the Slytherin's and Ravenclaws. As the team landed, the captain of the Ravenclaw team walked up to Creevey, 'well-played, Creevey, well-played.'

'Thanks,' Creevey said smugly, 'better luck next time.'

Lily laughed, 'that was kind of harsh.'

'If you ask me,' Creevey said to her, 'they came far too close to winning the match. Leading for a good while too! We need to be careful, that bloke knows what he's doing.'

'Yeah, they're pretty good,' Raewyn butted in on the conversation, 'but we beat them, didn't we? So let's leave the analyzing for tomorrow, and leave tonight for the celebrating. Lil, I think a visit to the kitchens is in order.'

Lily grinned, 'Quite right you are Rae, couldn't be a good feast if we didn't have some butterbeer at the very least.'

'May be able to persuade Dobby into giving us some of his firewhiskey...'

'Now, hold your horses,' Creevey said, 'Stealing from the kitchens is one thing, but I'm not allowing any underaged wizard or witch drink firewhiskey, especially not my two most precious teammates. I don't want to risk getting anyone expelled.'

Raewyn snorted, 'did you hear that, Lil?'

'"Two most precious teammates",' Lil said, copying Creevey's tone, 'why, I think he's getting fond of us.'

'Who said I was talking about you two,' Creevey said.

* * *

The weather was turning a lot colder and pretty soon Hogwarts grounds were covered in snow, no one could safely venture outside without being hit by a jinxed snowball at least once, which drove Filch absolutely crazy. He couldn't seem to catch the culprits that were behind it. He tried to blame Lily for it once, saying that 'whenever there was trouble, she was usually behind it. Like her father and her grandfather before her' (which had filled her with pride), but he was forced to let her go after she pointed out that she didn't even have her wand with her.

On one particularly cold Sunday morning, her father's owl came swooping in, carrying a letter that by the looks of it came from her mother. To Sirius' satisfaction, she had written to them shortly after the Quidditch match, giving them a full report on how it had gone and of course their brilliant victory over Ravenclaw.

'Mum wants to know if the two of you want to come over for Christmas,' she said, after skimming the letter through (telling herself that she would read it entirely later on).

'Sure,' Brogan said immediately.

'I'll have to ask my parents,' Raewyn said, warming her hands on a cup of hot chocolate.

'I was planning on staying at Hogwarts for Christmas anyway,' Brogan said. 'Mum and dad were going to France, or something like that. But this sounds a lot better.'

'To France?' Raewyn asked.

'Yeah, my mother's from Beauxbatons,' Brogan explained. 'Still has some friends down there and all.'

'I thought she was from Durmstrang,' Lily said. 'Because she visited Romania last summer.'

'No, my grandmother is from Durmstrang,' Brogan corrected her.

'Oh,' Lily said a little confused. She was sure he'd said that it was his mother.

'Come on,' Raewyn said loudly, distracting her, 'we can still go to the owlery before Quidditch practice if we hurry. That way I'll know the official answer by tomorrow.'

'I'll see you tonight,' Brogan said, 'I've got some homework to catch up on.'

After Quidditch practice it took Lily the rest of the night to warm herself up again. Her hands had gone numb and when she'd walked into the warm common room, they had tingled painfully. But practice had gone quite well, she didn't think their team had ever flown this good, everyone was still in high spirits over winning the match.

Her painful hands made it hard for her to hold a quill, but she did so nonetheless, tomorrow she had Defence and she didn't want to loose anymore housepoints.

When she was almost finished and let out a huge sigh of relief, Brogan managed to squash her good mood, 'Remember we've also got Charms homework...'

'Oh, you're kidding me right,' she groaned.

'You can copy mine,' he offered.

'Thanks.' She gratefully accepted the role of parchment. Maybe she'd be able to go to bed before one o'clock in the morning for once.

And indeed it was one of the last nights she managed to go to bed on a reasonable hour. Instead of letting the students relax a bit more as Christmas break drew close, they let them work even harder, probably under the impression that they wouldn't need the Holidays unless they were all heavily overworked and bordering on depression.

Raewyn was the only one who wasn't bothered by this, who turned in her homework faithfully, but had hardly made any of it herself. Only Professor Granger commented on it, saying that her work always seemed to have the same mistakes as Lily's. Raewyn said that this must be because they were such good friends and this caused a telepathic connection between the two of them, so really, it was not _her_ fault that there essay's were similar. 'In fact,' she had said, 'the other day Lily was suffering from huge stomach cramps, and because of our close connection, I was suffering from it too. It's a burden I tell you and if I could do anything about it, professor, I would.'

Professor Granger's mouth had opened and closed a few times, unsure of how to respond. She had never brought the subject up again.

A week before the Holidays, Raewyn received her parents response. 'Oh, they're going to visit my grandmother, so I don't even have to be around for Christmas!' she said. 'Brilliant! I won't have to see that old hag for another year, then.'

Raewyn absolutely loathed her grandmother, being very snobbish and as Muggle as one could be. (though Lily's father had said that she couldn't possibly be any worse than the Dursley's, where he had lived when he was still a kid) Her grandmother had filed for divorce after she had found out that her grandfather was a wizard. 'And a lazy one too, he was,' she'd always say, when the subject was brought to the table.

'This is going to be great,' Lily said, clapping her hands excitedly. 'At least I won't have to bore myself to death when they're holding one of their dinner parties again.'

'Bore yourself to death? I find that very hard to belief,' Brogan said, having heard a thing or two about these dinner parties. 'I heard they invite loads of people every year.'

'Yeah, about everyone who's once been a member of the Order of the Phoenix,' Lily said, rolling her eyes, 'and those in the Ministry that helped them out, of course. After a few bottles of mead they'll break into stories about the war, which I'm not allowed to hear and I'll be send straight up to my room to stare at my ceiling. It's absolutely fascinating.'

The last day before break Quidditch training was canceled, due to a large blizzard, which send Raewyn in hysterics ('As if two weeks without training isn't hard enough, they rob me of my last chance!') and Lily into cloud nine. She'd been dreading to fly with this weather, being pretty sure that her fingers would freeze right off and she preferred to keep all ten of them, thank-you-very-much.

They all spend the entire day packing and Lily took time to order some last-minute gifts for her brother and uncle Ron, hoping they would arrive in time by Christmas.

Calling an early night which she richly deserved, she drifted off to sleep. It'd be nice to be home again, she thought to herself. Of course Hogwarts was great, but it would mean two weeks without any homework, complaining and Mrs. Norris.

* * *

'Hurry up, will you Sirius?' Lily said annoyed, pushing her brother through the compartment door. 'Mum and dad are already waiting for us!'

'Bye!' Sirius called over his shoulder to his friend, 'merry Christmas!'

'Happy New Year,' the boy responded, waving at them.

Harry walked up to her, giving Lily a tight hug. 'You look wonderful, Lily.'

'Thanks,' she said, trying to break free from his grip. 'Dad... everyone can see us you know.'

'Oh, I'm sorry,' he grinned at her. 'And you must be Brogan,' he said, holding out his hands to the tall, black-haired boy next to her. Brogan shook it and gave him a shy smile.

'You remind me of someone,' her father said, frowning slightly. 'What's your last name?'

'Peddycord, sir.'

'Peddycord... no I don't think I've ever heard of that. Are you muggle-born?'

'No, his mother's from Beauxbatons and his father graduated from Hogwarts,' Raewyn answered for him.

They were interrupted by Ginny, who had been fussing over Sirius first and had no turned her attention on Lily. 'And what have I heard?' she said, putting her hands on her hips and giving her a glare.

'I don't know,' Lily said innocently.

'Some business about a lovepotion?' Ginny asked, raising her eyebrows.

'I have no idea what you're talking about,' Lily tried to keep herself from blushing. 'D'you, Rae?'

'Haven't the faintest.'

'Heard something about Dwight singing a sonnet to Granger though,' Brogan muttered.

'_Professor_ Granger,' Ginny corrected. 'And I suppose you have had nothing to do with it?'

'The mere suggestion alone!' Lily said.

'As if she would ever do that.' Raewyn sounded affronted. 'We've been behaving like angels all term...'

'Always expecting us to do the worst,' Lily crossed her arms but was unable to keep a straight face as she saw her dad's smile. Ginny huffed, 'You're lucky you didn't get caught this time, Lily. But if I even hear the faintest whisper that you've been involved in something like this again...'

'You won't.' She promised (though she had her fingers crossed behind her back).

'I'll look after her,' Brogan said, giving Ginny a reassuring smile. This seemed to set her mother at ease, but Lily gave him a look. He'd look after _her_? He was worse then her at most times! She barely kept herself from snorting as Raewyn said, 'Me too!'

'That's nice of you to offer Raewyn,' Ginny said with a small smile, 'but I don't think that accounts to much.'

'Well I'd never!' Raewyn protested.

The ride to Godric's Hollow went a lot faster than usual, her father had turned on the radio, blasting it loudly through the car and her mother was humming along. Sirius was telling them about everything he could think off (and more), even down to the large party that had been held after their triumph over Ravenclaw. 'It was brilliant! Lily and Raewyn got butterbeer and exploding snaps and all that sort out of the kitchens...'

Her mother turned around, 'out of the kitchens?'

'With professor McGonnagal's permission, of course,' Sirius said smoothly.

'She gave permission?' Ginny said disbelievingly.

'It's no secret that she's a huge fan of the Gryffindor team,' Harry helped Sirius out, suppressing a grin. 'She was probably happy that they won and found that they deserved a treat.'

'Don't remember McGonnagal ever doing that for us,' Ginny said, though she seemed to let this one slide.

Lily did slap her brother on the back of his head as soon as her mother had turned around again and he stuck her tongue out at her. Their house was already filled with people, most of the Weasley family was there, except for Uncle Charlie who was dealing with a nasty dragon down in China who'd been attacking muggle villages. Then there was Remus Lupin with his partner (though also still unmarried) Nymphadora Tonks, Mundungus Fletcher who'd turn up every Christmas unwanted and Neville Longbottom. Who'd only be there for today and would return on New Years eve along with his wife Luna and their son.

Brogan's eyes nearly popped out of its sockets, seeing the amount of people.

'What's happened to him,' he muttered softly to Lily, as he nodded into the direction of Uncle Bill.

'Had an unpleasant meeting with Fenrir Greyback, a couple of years ago.' She said.

Uncle Bill's face was covered in scars that would never disappear, which was usually the case with werewolf attacks.

'So he's a werewolf?' Brogan said, his eyes growing even larger.

She laughed, 'no. He just eats a lot of raw meat. Greyback wasn't transformed when he attacked him. Lupin's one though.'

'Your parents hang around with werewolves...' he said, finding this incomprehensible.

'And half-giants, of course,' she grinned, referring to Hagrid. 'They're a strange lot. But they're all one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I promise you that you won't find Lupin at your bedside at full moon.'

'Lily! Sirius!' Uncle Ron called, waving at them. Professor Granger, or Hermione as she was now allowed to call her, stood next to him, all giving them a broad smile. 'Now what have I heard?'

'Fake rumors, I suppose,' Lily said, glancing nervously at Hermione, who was staring hard at her – though there was a hint of amusement glittering in her eyes.

'You often remind me of us when we were still at Hogwarts,' Fred said proudly, clapping her on the back. 'Though I wonder how you got your hands on that lovepotion.'

'I haven't gotten my hands on any potion. Ask Raewyn or Brogan!'

Fred gave her a look that clearly said that he didn't believe a word that she was saying.

'Do you really believe that I would ever steal anything from my two favorite uncles?' she said, pouting her lip. Hermione snorted, but Fred forgave her.

The subject was soon closed as everyone was distracted by a startled cry from Brogan, 'that thing almost attacked me!' he said, pointing at the other end of the room, where a beautiful bird was sitting on the window sill.

'Fawkes?' Lily said surprised, 'that's my dad's phoenix. It used to belong to Professor Dumbledore. I'm sure it didn't attack you. He'd never do anything like that.'

Brogan eyed the bird suspiciously and muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like 'bloody birds'.

'Is Wood coming?' Raewyn tugged Lily on her sleeve, an excited look on her face.

Lily shook her head, 'no, I don't think so. It's Quidditch season, remember. Probably out training somewhere.'

Raewyn looked heavily disappointed.

'... permission from McGonnagal? _I_'m the head of the house, I should've known about that...'

'I think it's time for us to leave,' Brogan whispered and pointed towards Ginny and Hermione.

'Right,' Lily said, 'I'll just show your to your rooms.'

* * *

Yawning, she walked down the stairs, it was Christmas morning and a huge pile of gifts was standing under the large Christmas tree, that went straight through the ceiling and through each room that was above it.

Raewyn was already staring greedily at them probably trying to spot which ones were hers. 'Morning,' she said, not taking her eyes of the presence. Lily only grunted in response.

'More like good afternoon,' Ginny said, pointing at the large clock above the fireplace. 'It's almost twelve o'clock!'

Another grunt in response.

Lily helped herself to a hearty breakfast and was coming a bit more alive when Brogan came down the stairs, looking much like she had a few minutes ago, rubbing his eyes.

Her grandmother tutted, 'does everyone sleep this late at Hogwarts?'

'Dad isn't up yet, either,' Lily responded.

'That's because he'd opened the Firewhiskey with Ron,' Hermione said, annoyance clear in her voice.

Sure enough, her dad came walking in a few minutes later through the back door, looking extremely disgruntled. Lily sniggered, he probably had to spend the night in the yard, like he always had to when he'd been drinking to much.

'I feel horrible,' Ron moaned, who came in after Harry. Ginny and Hermione exchanged smug looks. 'And why was I in the yard? Could've frozen to death, y'know.'

'Thirsty, dear?' Hermione asked sweetly, not answering his question. She handed him a cup, which he took gratefully before gagging violently. 'What in Merlin's name is this?'

'Just drink it, will you, it'll make you feel better,' Ginny said.

'It really will,' Harry said reasonably, he already had his own cup and had downed it in one gulp. He immediately looked a little more refreshed. 'Good morning, Lily, Brogan. Where's Raewyn.'

Lily pointed towards the living room, where Raewyn was still staring at the Christmas tree with anticipation. Her father laughed softly. 'Guess we'll have to start opening the presents soon.'

As everyone else came pouring into the living room, Raewyn gave a start for the tree, thinking that no more time should be waisted. She had just stretched out her hand when there was a loud knock on the front door.

'Who's that?' Mrs. Weasley said surprised, looking around the room, checking if no one was missing.

'I don't know,' Harry said equally surprised.

'Charlie maybe?' Fred suggested.

'Percy?'

'Who's Percy?' Lily asked.

'No one dear,' Mr. Weasley said.

'Mad-Eye Moody?'

A second knock was heard.

'Perhaps we should just open the door,' Ron said and followed his own advice.

Raewyn sunk back on the couch and sighed, 'I was so close.'

Lily gave her a comforting pad on the back.

'What're _you_ doing here?' They heard Ron say loudly from the hall. It didn't sound very pleasant and everyone exchanged looks. Even Raewyn forgot about the presents for a moment.

'Pleasure seeing you too, Weasley.'

The door was closed again and a skinny man with lightblond hair and a pail complexion came walking in.

'Malfoy?' Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Fred and George said in unison.

'Merry Christmas,' Malfoy smirked.

* * *

_A/N_

_Leave a review to tell me what you think. The next few chapters will still be used as an introduction of several characters, but afterwards I'll speed things up a little ;)._

_And, last chapter I commented on accidentally having referred to Hermione as professor Granger, but it turns out this wasn't such a huge mistake at all. I read in an interview with JK Rowling that a few teachers of the books were/are married, but that this information is classified. For a reason not yet explained, the Hogwarts teachers keep their spouses hidden, so therefore Hermione would've been referred to as Granger even though she changed her last name to Weasley. Hooray!  
_

_Almond eyed goddess: Why Lily was almost in Slytherin? Because in the end I just didn't have the nerve to make her a Slytherin, originally she was one. But it would create too much of a friction between her and her family so I made her 'almost' go. It's not that strange, the Sorting Hat was considering to put Harry in Slytherin too, if you may remember. The Hat said that it would make him 'great'. And all the other reasons why will become clear throughout the story :) And many thanks for the compliment, by the way._

_**TBC**_


	5. Chapter 4 Cat in the bag

**EXPECTO PATWHATTA?**

**BY MUNSJE**

**Chapter 4 – Cat in the bag**

'This is really unfair.' Raewyn lay on the hard wooden floor, staring at the white, cracked ceiling of Lily's room.

'Get used to it,' Lily sighed, glancing sideways to her friend. 'It's what usually happens around here.'

'I'm expecting a new broom, y'know.'

'A new broom? What's wrong with the one you got?'

'The Firebolt is seriously outdated.' Raewyn said, 'They just released the Milleniumbolt, it's supposed to be the best broom ever made. Heard Greece has already bought them for the next Quidditch World Cup.'

'And they bought you _that_ broom!' Brogan said, gasping, 'that must be worth at least a hundred galleons!'

'So? You can't place a pricetag on quality, Brogan... Lily? What are you doing?'

Lily had been rummaging in her pockets and shook out something that looked like an ear, Brogan gave her a revolted look. 'You carry that around in your pockets? What kind of freak are you?'

'They're Extendable Ears,' Lily said, 'my uncles made them. These are updated, can penetrate any Imperturable Charm.'

'_Extendable Ears_?' Brogan still eyed them suspiciously. 'Imperturable charms?'

'Would you just come here? We'll hear everything that's being said downstairs...'

'Why would we want to do that?'

'Because, Brogan,' Lily said, rolling her eyes, 'we're not _supposed_ to hear everything that's being said downstairs. Which means that it'll probably be very interesting.'

They listened to the end of the strings and they could hear a cold, sneering voice through it that they recognized to be Malfoy's.

'... been spotted in Europe.'

'Europe? Well thank you for telling us that piece of helpful information, Malfoy,' Ron said, 'That's really narrowed down our search a lot.'

'Shut up, Weasley,' Malfoy snarled. 'Do you want to hear what I've got to tell you or not?'

'Of course we do, Draco,' Hermione said hurriedly. 'Keep going.'

'She was in France at first, but was last spotted in Belgium.'

'And for how long have you known about this?' Ron said hotly. 'What're you still doing in England when you know Lestrange ...'

'OW!' There was a loud _SMACK_ just outside of Lily's door, Lily immediately started reeling the Extendable Ears in and opened it. On the floor, face down, lay her brother Sirius.

'Sirius,' she hissed, pulling him into her room. 'What are you doing sneaking about?'

'Sneaking about?' He said affronted, 'I was going to the bathroom.' He stared at her hands and gasped, 'you were using the Extendable Ears again, weren't you. That's why I tripped!'

'Yes, and you snapped the string, you idiot,' she said, pushing them into her pocket. 'They're useless now.'

'You know what mum says about those!'

They heard someone coming up the stairs and Lily narrowed her eyes, 'you're not going to tell mum I used them are you?'

'What's in it for me?'

'You'll live to see the end of the year.'

'Not good enough. I want to know what you heard.'

'It's none of your business.'

'MUM!' He called loudly. 'I'm in Lily's room!'

'I swear to God, Sirius...'

'LILY WAS -'

'Alright, alright,' she said hastily, 'I will tell you what I heard. Deal?'

'Deal,' Sirius said, shaking her hand on it, just as her bedroom door opened and Ginny appeared.

'What happened?' Ginny asked, looking each of them up and down. 'What was Lily doing?'

'Practicing her hit again,' Sirius said swiftly, 'and she accidentally hit me with the ball and I fell on the floor.'

'Oh.'

Thankfully Ginny didn't notice that Lily's club was still lying in her trunk, that was under her bed. 'Are you alright dear?'

'I'm fine.'

'Lily, what did I tell you about practicing Quidditch inside the house?'

'I'm sorry mum.'

'Don't make it happen again.' And Ginny marched back down the stairs. Lily turned to her friends and it was the first time she noticed, that Brogan had gone stark white.

'Are you OK?' she asked worriedly.

'Yeah,' Brogan said, shaking himself out of his reverie. 'They've found Bellatrix Lestrange?'

'You know about her?' Lily said, slightly surprised.

'Of course I know about her. She's the most dangerous follower of You Know Who that hasn't been captured yet,' Brogan said, 'everyone knows about _her_. I heard she blew up a Muggle department store once, when trying to escape the Ministry. Killed most of the people present!'

'Don't worry about it,' Lily said reassuringly. 'She's in Belgium, far away from here. She can't harm us.'

Brogan forced a feeble smile, but stayed a little out of it for the rest of the day.

* * *

When Draco had finally left, it was already nearing dinner time and everyone hurriedly opened all of their presents. Raewyn got her Milleniumbolt, which continued to be admired all throughout the evening and Harry asked if Lily also needed one of those, but Ginny put a stop to it, saying that it was 'far too expensive, and that the Comet 520 she had was working just fine'. Lily got a pair of fancy Quidditch gloves made of dragonleather, a book called _The Gap Between Wizards and Muggles & How To Cross It_ which was obviously from Hermione who gave her a book each year, a still unopened carton box from Fred and George (who'd given it to her when her parents hadn't been looking and said it was best to keep it closed till Hogwarts), a new telescope from Hagrid along with his rock cakes that she immediately threw out and the best gift of the year: a small kitten. She had white fur, with almost transparent blue eyes.

'You never had a pet since your rat died,' Harry said.

Lily gave an involuntary sniff as she remembered her rat Pocus.

Brogan got more gifts than he had expected and had gotten some money from his parents to buy something for himself when he next visited Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley. It wasn't a whole lot, but he figured that he could buy some toffee from it, or perhaps a Sugared Quill.

'I'll just go and write her a thank you note,' he said, after they had all finished unpacking. Raewyn agreed and they went up to their rooms to write a quick letter before coming down to dinner.

Even more people had arrived for Christmas dinner, Kingsley Shacklebolt who was a famed Auror at the Ministry, along with even more famed ex-Auror Mad-Eye Moody (though her mother insisted on calling him Alastor and made the children promise not to use Mad-Eye), Sturgis Podmore, Hagrid, Madam Maxine and some other big and important people from the Ministry that Lily didn't know by name. She muttered the names of those that she did to Brogan. 'Honestly, you're a pureblood aren't you,' she said exasperated at one point, 'You've got to recognize at least _half_ of them.'

'Not all of us are as well-connected as your family,' Brogan said defensively, helping himself to a second slice of apple pie.

'Where _do_ you leave all that food,' Raewyn said amazed. He shrugged, 'I'm a guy. We eat a lot. It's our thing.'

Raewyn eyed him jealously.

When the fourth bottle of mead was opened, the atmosphere in the room turned heavy, when Bill said that he was happy to see all of them alive and well for another year. Lily nudged her friends, 'that would be our cue.' As they left the room, they were indeed beginning to bring up the memories of darker times.

'They won't be fun for at least another hour,' she told them. 'Best leave them to it. I've nicked some butterbeers earlier today, they're in my room.' Sirius joined them and the four of them were discussing Hogwarts, Quidditch and a lot of other stuff merrily while enjoying their butterbeers.

'This has been the best Christmas I ever had,' Brogan said dreamily.

Lily smiled. Sirius impressed them all by performing a spell that made it snow (though truth be told, it looked more like yellow confetti, but this didn't kill the spirit) and when the clock turned ten Sirius yawned loudly.

'Off to bed with you,' Lily said strictly, 'or you won't be able to get out up tomorrow morning.'

He didn't even protest and headed for the bathroom to brush his teeth. 'Let's go back downstairs, shall we,' Raewyn suggested. Lily muttered a spell that made the confetti stop. They'd come at the right moment, because everyone seemed to be in a good mood again. 'Remember when Percy tried to impress us all with that Cauldron-report?' Fred laughed loudly, his cheeks were red from all the mead he'd been drinking.

'Who is this Percy guy?' Lily said.

'No one dear,' Mr. Weasley replied off-handedly.

'You seem to bringing him up an awful lot,' she said, crossing her arms.

No one responded to this and the subject was changed to when Fred and George had tried to send Harry a lavatory seat when he'd been in the Hospital Wing. (why he'd been there in the first place was left out of the conversation, though Lily had a good guess)

'A lavatory seat? No one ever told me this!' Mrs. Weasley said.

'That was _years_ ago mum,' George said, 'and Dumbledore found it extremely amusing. Too bad Madam Pince thought it wasn't hygienic...'

'I would think so! A lavatory seat in the hospital wing...'

'... tried to mend his arm, instead he mad Harry's bones disappear,' Ron roared with laughter, imitating Harry's floppy arm as best he could. Ginny choked on her pumpkin juice. Harry tried to look offended, but cheered up after she gave him a kiss.

'Mum, ugh,' Lily said disgusted. 'Keep that for the bedroom, thank you very much.'

'Don't be so childish, Lily,' Bill said grinning. 'How are things going with you, actually. Have you got a boyfriend?'

'She's just fourteen!' Ginny said.

'That didn't stop you, covered half the school by then,' Fred said, joining the conversation.

'I hadn't covered half the school, I had one boyfriend and I was almost fifteen, I thank you! But Lily isn't far old enough to have a boyfriend!'

'Not old enough? I'm turning fifteen in two months!'

'Exactly, far too young,' Harry nodded vigorously. 'Best to wait, if you ask me. You have more than enough time for that sort of thing.'

'Weren't you drooling over Cho Chang at her age,' George winked at Lily.

Harry flushed a deep red.

'Tried to ask her to the Yule Ball if memory serves me,' Fred said, 'turned him down.'

'Yeah, but they got together a year later, so it's not nearly as embarrassing as when Ron tried to ask Fleur out.'

'Could we please not mention that.' Ron said, flushing even redder than his friend.

Fleur laughed, 'I remember zat!'

'I don't,' Bill said, raising his eyebrows. 'He tried to ask you to the Yule Ball?'

'Ask him?' Ginny clutched her stomach for laughing so hard, 'More like shouting!'

'Too young,' Lily muttered in the meanwhile. 'I'm not too young.'

'What do they think we are, eleven?' Raewyn muttered back.

* * *

'Hi Lily.'

Lily was so dumbfounded that she couldn't find it in herself to respond, other than dumbfounded, she was also a little scared. Dwight, who'd been walking past her, gave her a huge grin before turning around the corner.

'What was that?' she demanded, turning to Raewyn.

'Don't look at me, I'm just as shocked as you are.'

'What does it mean?'

'I don't know. Maybe he's plotted his revenge or something.'

'It looked more like he was trying to flirt with you, if you ask me,' Faë, a girl from their class, said with a smirk.

'Tried to flirt with me,' Lily repeated slowly. 'Why would he do that? He hates me!'

'No he doesn't,' Faë said, 'why would he hate you?'

'Because I'm the one that gave him those chocolate cauldrons which made him swoon over professor Granger!' she hurriedly added, 'or at least he thinks so.'

'Besides, he only said _hi_. Since when is greeting someone flirting?' Raewyn said, also finding it very hard to believe that Dwight would ever do such a thing.

'It's in the way he said it.' Faë said wisely.

'In what way did he say it?'

'You know, in _that_ way.'

'What way?'

'_That_ way,' Faë sighed, 'honestly, don't the two of you know anything?'

Raewyn and Lily exchanged glances. Obviously they didn't. The only thing strange about the 'hi' had been the 'hi' itself, not the way in which it had been said. They were both subdued, trying to figure out if Faë had been right.

'Obviously she isn't,' Raewyn said as they walked to the Greenhouse for their Herbology lesson. 'I mean, the very idea is ridiculous.'

When they met Dwight on their way there, Lily couldn't stop herself from blushing though. And why was he smiling in _that_ way? And what way was _that_ way?

'I really think he's just come up with a plan to get back at you,' Raewyn said, having noticed the smile as well. 'He's probably being overly nice with you because he doesn't want you to know that it was him. As if we are that thick.'

'We're not that thick,' Lily said, 'the idiot.'

'Yeah. He's a... a... flobberworm.'

'We have to be extra careful from now on.'

'Avoid him at all costs!'

'Go into hiding!'

'Walking around incognito!'

'What are the two of you talking about,' Brogan said, as he sat down next to them.

'Dwight's going to take his revenge on Lily,' Raewyn said importantly. 'We're discussing our tactics.'

'Walking around incognito?' Brogan snorted. 'Brilliant tactics.'

Professor Strout came walking in, stopping their conversation as she began explaining about some dull plant they'd cover this semester. Raewyn immediately zoned out, as she usually did, staring blankly into the distance. Brogan was busy hitting the plant that was behind him that tickled his neck to make him laugh. Lily's insides were doing strange things with her. She was obviously just nervous about the payback that was coming, she told herself. She must be vigilant, always on the look-out. She should not be taken by surprise.

But as their first week back slowly came to an end, nothing had happened.

'Maybe he really was just being nice,' Raewyn said, finding it all very strange.

'Dwight being nice?'

'Good point.'

'Remember! Vigilance!'

'Yes, yes, I'm being vigilant,' Raewyn sighed, staring at Dwight at the Slytherin table, who seemed to have nothing better to do than stare at Lily, as he had been doing so for the past few days. 'Maybe Hermione gave him a love potion that made him fancy _you_.'

'Dwight is _not_ in love with me,' Lily said through gritted teeth.

'Of course he isn't, he's a Slytherin. Why would he ever want to date a Gryffindor,' Brogan said. 'Can we talk about something else now? We've been discussing Dwight all week. It almost seems as if _you_ are in love with him.'

'Don't be a... a... a...'

'Flobberworm,' Raewyn supplied.

'Right. Don't be a flubberthingy.'

An owl came swooping in, dropping a letter for Brogan right into his pumpkin juice, splattering it all over his robes. 'Ruddy birds,' he said. He untied the letter from the owl's leg and when it tried to eat something of his plate he shooed it away, 'practice your aiming before touching my food.' The owl clicked angrily and Lily, feeling pity for the poor animal, offered her something of her bread. As she did so, she could read Brogan's letter, which only contained three words.

_Thank you_,

_mum_

'What's she thanking you for?'

'What I gave her for Christmas, I suppose. She's not a witch of many words.'

'Really? I couldn't tell,' Lily smirked.

'Go moon over Dwight.'

'Go eat slugs.'

'Go...'

'Now now, children, be nice,' Raewyn interrupted them. 'We got to hurry, Potions is starting in a few minutes.' She grimaced, she absolutely despised potions. Lily however, seemed to cheer up a bit at the prospect of having another potions lesson. 'I think she's now mooning over professor Tackabury,' Raewyn whispered to Brogan, as Lily hurried out of the hall. Brogan snorted loudly.

* * *

Her cat, whom she had dubbed Cadabra, lay spinning on her lap as she petted her absentmindedly. Faë was telling Raewyn how best to charm Casper Creevey, even though her friend didn't want to hear it. 'You two belong together! Both obsessed with Quidditch...'

'Yes, and that would be our only similarity,' Raewyn had said, but Faë had decided that Hogwarts needed more romance ever since she started dating some random Hufflepuff guy and would not let go.

Brogan was joking around with Merlin at the other side of the room, trying his best to escape Faë and her matchmaking service.

Lily had just received a letter from her mother, telling her that dad had gone to Belgium to chase after Bellatrix Lestrange.Though logic told her that if her dad had managed to best Lord Voldemort - the greatest Dark Wizard in centuries - he could deal with her as well, but she was still scared. What if something happened to him? What if he had a black-out and couldn't remember a single spell when he faced Lestrange? Lord knows she had them on occasion. She nearly flunked Charms last year because of it.

And what if Lestrange would come after their family, because she got annoyed with her dad chasing her? What if her mother would get involved, one way or another, and _she_ would get killed? Why couldn't dad just work at the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office? Why did he have to be an Auror?

'Lily? Is something wrong?' Raewyn broke her train of thought and she looked up, startled. Faë smirked. 'Thinking about Dwight, were you?'

Lily turned a deep shade of red, despite herself. 'I was _not_,' she said.

'You know what they say...'

'No I don't, what do they say.'

'Well, you know.'

'We _don't_ know,' Raewyn said exasperated.

'You two need more girlfriends,' Faë said wisely. 'Playing Quidditch with those boys all the time has made you far too manly.' After that she got up and left. Lily and Raewyn stared at each other, open-mouthed. Manly?

'I am not manly,' Lily said, glaring after Faë.

'Yeah! Do you see me belching the alphabet?'

'I hate her.'

'So do I.'

'I bet _she_ doesn't even know what they say,' Lily said.

'She's full of it,' Raewyn nodded. 'I think she needs to learn a lesson.'

'I heartily agree with that, mon ami, what do you suggest?'

'I dunno, but something that will make her think twice before messing with the likes of us!'

'Hear, hear!'

When Faë returned to them half an hour later, the two were whispering conspiratorially and stopped as soon as she was in hearing range. Faë shifted uncomfortably, they wouldn't do anything to her, would they? They were in the same house after all. No. Lily and Raewyn wouldn't be that stupid...

But the large grins on their faces made her doubt that and she decided not to take any chocolate they would offer her in the months to come.

* * *

_A/N_

_Leave a review if you feel like it :) it's much appreciated_


	6. Chapter 5 THWACK!

**EXPECTO PATWHATTA**

**BY MUNSJE**

**Chapter 5 – THWACK!**

The second match of the season, Gryffindor against Hufflepuff, was also a victorious win. But considering Hufflepuff hadn't won the Cup for at least twenty years and had ranked lowest last year, it was not unexpected.

Following the Quidditch Match was a trip to Hogsmeade, one Lily was looking forward to and she was already discussing her plans with Raewyn. They still needed to put Faë in her spot, who'd become increasingly annoying over the past few weeks, and they wanted to make this one a prank to remember. One people would still talk about in years to come! But nothing overly cruel, Faë was a Gryffindor after all.

The Friday before their Hogsmeade weekend, Lily received yet another letter from her mother, which left her fuming.

_... Your dad had been unable to catch Lestrange in Belgium, she had left long before he had arrived. Sources tell she had taken a boat back to England in Holland. Because of this I don't want you to go to Hogsmeade this weekend, I have warned Hermione to keep an eye on you ..._

She was considering sending a letter back which asked why she had to suffer for her father's incompetence, but decided against it. Instead she gave no response at all. 'I'm going to Hogwarts,' she told her friends grimly. 'They need more than _professor_ Granger to try and stop me!'

Raewyn and Brogan exchanged looks, they doubted that Lily would be able to pass Hermione. Neither of them said anything though, knowing that this would only add fuel to the fire.

'I think it's very reasonable,' Sirius had said, crossing his arms and raising one eyebrow, 'she's dangerous, isn't she? What if she'd find you in Hogsmeade...'

'Don't be ridiculous, what would Lestrange be doing in a town full of wizards knowing that the whole community is after her. Hogsmeade is perfectly safe!'

That night, however, a notice was hung on the board to say that the entire trip had been canceled due to _unfortunate circumstances that might endanger the students_.

'No matter,' Lily said, unperturbed, 'There are other ways into Hogsmeade than the regular way.'

She was thinking about the secret passageway behind the statue, that lead to the basement of Honeydukes, but when the three of them set out the next morning they found that the corridor leading to it was blocked. 'Trying to break in, are ye?' Filch wheezed from behind them. 'That passageway is restricted for students... don't want to get caught breaking school rules, do you!'

'Could've seen that coming,' Lily muttered, on her way back to the common room. 'Hermione must've used that passageway in her time at Hogwarts, too.' What Hermione probably didn't know was that she knew of another. 'Underneath the Whomping Willow, it leads to the Shrieking Shack,' she told Raewyn and Brogan.

'The Whomping Willow? You want to get us killed?' Brogan exclaimed loudly.

'Sssh,' she said urgently, looking around to see if anyone had heard. 'Of course not. I know how to freeze it. I heard about it once, when dad told Fred and George about the time he met his Godfather. Mind you, it will be difficult...'

'Can't we give it up already?' Brogan said, 'there'll be other times when we _are_ allowed to visit. Don't you think it'll...'

'No, we _can't _give it up already,' she interrupted him. 'It's a matter of principle!'

However, it turned out that Hermione deserved her title as one of the brightest and most talented witches alive today, she was sitting on the grass, a safe distance away from the Whomping Willow with a picnic basket. Though the Whomping Willow did the best to reach her with its long branches, but missed continuously (if only by a hair, but this did not seem to bother Hermione in the slightest).

'Hello, Lily,' she said, smiling innocently as she saw the three students walking towards her. Right next to her was a loud _THWACK_ as a particularly long and nasty branch hit the ground. Lily scowled in return. 'How have you been, haven't had much time to see you outside of the classroom.'

'Just fine, thank you,' Lily said stiffly.

'You want a muffin?' Hermione held out a large chocolate chip muffin, which Raewyn greedily accepted and Lily decided that her hate should not come in between her and food, so she took one as well. 'I hope you weren't trying to sneak off to Hogsmeade.'

'Of course I wasn't,' Lily said, forcing a smile.

'And I especially hope that you weren't trying to get past the Whomping Willow,' Hermione continued, munching away on a bacon sandwich, 'you could get seriously hurt.' _WHAM_, the tree had decided to put its entire weight in it this time, but looked disgruntled when he hit nothing else but solid ground and crumpled a daisy or two.

'We were aware, professor,' Raewyn replied for her, when Lily didn't. 'And we would never venture on such a dangerous endeavour.'

'Of course you wouldn't,' Hermione said, her voice so honey-sweet they were eerily reminded of professor Skeeter, 'because I'd be forced to take of a hundred points _each_ from my own house if you did!'

'A-a-a-a h-hundred,' Brogan stuttered.

'Each?' Raewyn said, her mouth agape.

'From your own _house_!' Lily added.

'A fine summary,' Hermione said dryly.

The three friends left soon after that, with Lily in an even worse mood than before. 'You'd think she'd know by now not to mess with _me_,' she said through gritted teeth.

* * *

'I'm going to _KILL_ her!' Raewyn roared, her face was a bright red and she seemed to be sweating a little. '_WHERE IS SHE_!' 

There was a squeal from the other side of the room and than someone ran thumping up the stairs to the girls dormitory.

Raewyn tried to make a start for the stairs, but was held back by Merlin and Cassandra, though it took them all their strength to do so. 'That vile evil...'

'Raewyn it's not that big a deal,' Merlin said.

Lily and Brogan entered the common room, in deep discussion about their next Transfiguration assignment and they both fell silent as they saw the scene before them. Lily's mouth nearly fell to the ground.

'Faë send Creevey a valentine's card, under her name,' Violet whispered.

Brogan mouthed an 'O', but no sound came out. He couldn't help but think _poor Faë_. 'Raewyn, I swear, if you don't calm down _right_ now I'm going to petrify you and lock you in a cupboard,' Merlin threatened. This seemed to relax her, she went rigid as if she had been petrified, but her heavy breathing betrayed her.

'We all agree that it was a nasty joke to play, Rae,' Cassandra said soothingly, 'but I'm sure Creevey understands that you didn't send it... and Faë will get her due.'

'Oh that she will,' Raewyn promised darkly.

'Don't do anything that'll get you expelled or kicked off the team,' Merlin warned, 'we need you for the next match. It's against Slytherin!'

The two of them send a look for help in Lily's direction, who finally managed to spring into action. She walked over to her best friend and laid her arm around her, 'don't you worry, Rae. What's the worst that could happen after all? That Creevey likes you too?'

'_Too_? _Too_? Who ever said _I_ liked him!'

'Whatever, that it turns out that he likes you, then,' Lily said airily. 'Besides, he probably knows that someone else was behind it. Sending a Valentine card is not exactly your style.' She quickly lead Raewyn out of the common room and when they had entered the corridor she whispered into her ear, 'besides, I have a plan.'

'I was hoping you'd say that.'

'Do I ever disappoint you?'

'Hey!' Brogan called from behind them, 'I want to hear about the plan!'

'If you'll say it any louder professor McGonnagal might hear you,' Lily rolled her eyes. 'Besides, who said there _was _a plan.'

'There's always a plan,' Brogan said, smirking.

'True,' Raewyn nodded. 'What have you got in mind this time.' Lily's eyes had a twinkle in them, that for Faë meant that it was best to pack her belongings right now and leave Hogwarts at an unhumanly speed, and for Raewyn meant that she would even the score with Faë _and_ more.

Her anger immediately forgotten, a grin formed on her face and she raised her eyebrows questioningly. 'And?'

'You remember this Christmas, when Fred and George gave me that box that I wasn't allowed to open until Hogwarts? Well, I haven't opened it yet, so I don't know what's in there, but I bet that it's plain brilliant.'

'T_hat's_ your plan? What did you say again about never dissapointing me?'

'I'm sorry, weren't you listening?'

'I _was_ listening and all I heard is that you've got an unopened box, that could be just as easily filled with nothing but air, hidden in your trunk...'

'It's a box from Fred and George!' Lily said a little louder than she had expected. Wasn't Raewyn aware who Fred and George were, had she been hit by a memory charm that she didn't know about? Her uncles had the reputation of being two of the most mischievous students in Hogwarts History (though Remus Lupin claimed that the true holders of this record were Sirius Black and James Potter).

'Yeah, but they'd never give you anything exciting, your mum'd immediately know they'd be involved...'

'They gave me the map, didn't they?'

'OK, so they gave you the map...'

'The Nosebleed Nougat so we could get out of History of Magic.'

'Yes, and the Nosebleed Nougat, but other than that-'

'Don't forget the invisibility glove, we gave Flitwick quite a scare with that one, thought I'd lost my hand during Charms, got us out of that lesson,' Brogan reminded her.

'OK. So they gave us the map, the Nosebleed Nougat and the invisibility glove. But they didn't know what we were going to do with it, now did they?'

'I don't think they expected us not to use it for our own gain,' Lily said dryly.

Raewyn 'hmph'd. 'Fine, but I still think it's not your best plan yet.'

'As Muggles would say,' Brogan said, sticking up for Lily for a reason unknown, 'just you wait, Mr. Higgins, just you wait!'

Lily and Raewyn gave him a look.

'I swear it makes sense if you've seen _My Fair Lady_,' he said defensively, his cheeks turning pink. The two girls snorted.

All three were eager to find out what the box actually contained, they didn't go back to the Gryffindor common room immediately. They didn't want Faë to suspect her impending doom, so they decided to steer clear for a while and provide themselves with a solid alibi: the library. Besides, they still had a lot of homework to do. Plotting might be fun, but it didn't get you out of Defence the next morning and especially couldn't protect you from an angry Hermione on a rampage.

Though Lily claimed that one day she would find a way.

Brogan wished her good luck and said he'd be the first to visit her on her funeral.

Lily took out her books and began writing a long and arduous report about Werewolves and how to spot them (as if she didn't know, she had one visiting her house at least every Christmas and Easter). Brogan – who'd already finished it, as usual – was busy doing some extra reading on History of Magic, so he could bother professor Binns with some questions tomorrow. When Raewyn laughed at him and called him a nerd, he pointed out that this would ensure them an early afternoon off, because Binns could never handle students who actually paid attention in his class. He'd have a nervous breakdown on the spot.

A while later, Lily was just adding the finishing touches, when a loud _THWACK_ was heard, followed by a cussing Raewyn. She looked up, sighed and than grabbed the book that was busy trying to start his new attack on her friend out of the air.

Raewyn had not been doing much of anything at all, as was usual and had been staring lazily into the distance, holding her quill in her hand. She had written exactly one word _Werewolves_, of which she was very proud. When the minutes dragged on she found herself thinking about a Quidditch game she'd seen over the summer between the Montrose Magpies and the Wigtown Wanderers, and when she thought of the spectacular goal that had been made, she had flicked her quill around enthusiastically, splattering her empty piece of parchment and the book with thick ink blots.

'What's this!' Madame Pince said from behind them. Raewyn groaned.

'Nothing,' Lily said, pressing the book tightly against her body while it was doing its best to break free.

'Nothing?' She stared long and hard at them all. Lily's arms were aching with all the strength she had to put in to contain the book. 'Than I suggest not to cuss in my library again, Miss Potter, or you'll find yourself with a lifelong ban!'

This was so unfair that Lily lost her grip for a split second, which was enough for the book and after he had hit Lily hard on the nose, sending tears into her eyes, he bolted to Raewyn and gave her a few hard hits before Madame Pince whisked it away.

'_Miss Mackneal_,' Madame Pince hissed, 'this is not the first time you have upset one of my books! Out! With all of you! _OUT_!' When they turned to leave, they saw the old woman stroking the book as if it was her baby.

'That woman is insane,' Raewyn said, rubbing over her soar cheek that had suffered the hardest.

'Yeah,' Lily said thickly clutching her nose. 'I think I'b heabing for Badame Pomfrey... I think it's bwoken.'

* * *

That night Raewyn and Lily sneaked up to boys' dormitory, Lily clutching the heavy carton box under her arms. 'Are you alone,' Lily whispered as Brogan opened the door to his room. 

'Yeah, all the others are still downstairs.'

Nine o'clock was indeed a bit early for anyone to go to bed, even the first years refused to turn in this early (though prefects would physically remove them if they were still there by 9:30).

'Alright,' Lily said, heaving a heavy sigh. She dropped the box on the bed, the three of them sat around it and a heavy silence hung in the room – apart from Lily ripping it apart. When she finally managed to tear it open, a splash of water fell over Brogan's bed and into his face. 'What the -'

'What is _that_!' Raewyn cut him off, pointing at the small water basin that had appeared.

'I don't know,' Lily said, ticking against the glass. 'It looks like a lobster.'

'A _lobster_,' Brogan said disbelievingly, 'why would they send you a lobster?'

'I haven't got a clue.'

'Is it still alive?' Raewyn asked nervously, as the lobster didn't move after Lily had tapped the glass several times, 'it's been in there for at least a month.'

'It can't be alive, no one would survive that kind of treatment.'

'Mad-Eye Moody was locked in a trunk for a year,' Lily reminded them, 'he's still alive to live the tale. But I don't think this lobster will...'

'But why shouldn't your mum be allowed to know that they got you a lobster?'

'Because they got her Cadabra?' Raewyn suggested, 'and she's only allowed to bring one pet to Hogwarts?'

'I find this all very mysterious,' Lily said, tapping her lip.

'It must be a magical lobster,' Brogan said, with enthusiasm. 'I bet it can do all these cool tricks!'

'_Could_ do all these cool tricks. This magical lobster is most definitely dead.' Raewyn said, giving the basin a shake, splashing even more water onto Brogan's bed.

They stared sadly at the dead lobster. That it was dead didn't bother them as much as that all their hopes for having a revenge to remember had just been squashed. Lily felt like everything was working against her, first the Hogsmeade weekend that had been canceled and now this...

'OK, I think it's safe to say that I failed,' she said.

'It's alright, Lils,' Raewyn said soothingly.

'Wait... IT MOVED!' Brogan was jumping up and down excitedly, 'IT'S ALIVE! THE MAGIC LOBSTER IS ALIVE!'

There was knock on the door and Kurt's voice, the prefect of Gryffindor, could be heard. 'Is everything alright in there?'

'Uhm... yeah...' Brogan responded, motioning for Lily and Raewyn to hide under there bed. Just as they had dropped to the ground the door was opened.

'What's all this business bout a magic lobster?' Kurt asked suspiciously.

'Erm... I was... reading a book... Marnie the Magic Lobster... he'd been attacked by an erm... Horklump and for a moment there I thought... it was very exciting you see.'

'Right.' Kurt said slowly. 'Don't let me bother you then, just keep your voice down, it's the first years bed time. They can't have someone whooping over Marnie the Magic Lobster's victorious fight against a Jobberknoll.'

Brogan promised he'd be quiet from now on and Kurt left, shaking his head.

Lily emerged from the ground and giggled, 'A _Horklump_? Honestly?'

'What did he do? Throw earthworms at Marnie?'

'I'll have you know that I don't believe one word of Newt Scamander, those things are dangerous I tell you,' Brogan said indignantly and shuddered just at the thought of them which send Lily and Raewyn into another peal of laughter.

They went back to the common room shortly afterwards, Lily went up to her room and shoved Marnie (as they had dubbed him) under her bed. She would sure sent a letter to Fred and George as soon as she had the chance. If this was the presents they came up with nowadays, they were allowed to skip her birthday.

It was then that she noticed a proud tawny owl sitting on the middle of her bed, with a pink envelope tied to its foot.

'Er... I think you might've gotten the wrong address,' she said, feeling her cheeks grew hot. The tawny owl didn't move from her bed and stared unblinkingly at her. 'Are you sure?' The owl clicked its tongue impatiently and she reached forward, untying the letter. When she opened it she found a moving and singing valentine card, it was one of the Weird Sister's most popular ballads and her personal favorite.

_Happy Valentine's Day, Lily. See you soon_.

It was unsigned. She thanked the owl quietly and than stuffed the card next to Marnie's basin, deciding to forget about it all together. She was beginning to think that her parents might have been right when they'd said she was much too young for this sort of thing.

_What am I saying_? She immediately thought to herself, _My parents are _never_ right._

* * *

'You have got to be kidding me,' Lily hissed, she peeked under her bed for what felt like the thousandth time, craning her neck this way and that. She sneezed as a cloud of dust hit her in the face. 

She had looked everywhere, but couldn't find it anywhere. 'It was you, wasn't it?' she said angrily to Cadabra, who gave her a long stare in return, before raising her chin in the air and pointedly looking away. 'Oh come on, Dabs, what else could've happened. You tried to eat it, didn't you!'

Cadabra walked out of the room, after she had growled angrily and Lily sighed. OK, maybe Cadabra hadn't done it, but honestly, what else could've happened? Marnie'd been near death last time she'd checked or at least a little out of sorts. In any case, it hadn't been in any condition to just up and walk away.

She checked her room again and again, but found nothing. Maybe it was somewhere in the common room? She ran down the stairs and found the common room so filled with people she knew it was impossible to search for Marnie now.

_Why do I care so much anyway_, she thought to herself, spotting a few off her classmates playing a game of exploding snap, _It's just a stupid lobster_. Right?

_A/N_

_And the plot is thickening!_

_Yay! ff finally let me upload this chapter. It took me forever, it kept saying something about an 'error' or whatnot. Anyway, because of this chapter six is nearly finished and will follow shortly :). Hope you enjoyed and let me know what you think!_

**Rosygirl113**: _Thanks for the lovely review :) And as for the comments, they are greatly appreciated. I'm sorry about the whole swearing to God thing, I tend to do that a lot myself and if I have offended you or anyone else I am truly sorry. As to Ron's and Harry's drinking: well, they are grown men, if they sounded like men who drink overly much regularly than let me point out that this was not my intention, but everyone – especially around the holidays – overdoes it every now and then. But don't worry; neither of them make a habit out of it!_


End file.
